IBM And World War II
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Both the
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and
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
used
IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
-punched card technology for some parts of their operations and record keeping.


By country


Germany

In Germany, during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, IBM engaged in business practices which have been the source of controversy. Much attention focuses on the role of IBM's German subsidiary, known as ''Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft'', or
Dehomag Dehomag was a German subsidiary of IBM and later a standalone company with a monopoly in the German market before and during World War II. The word was a syllabic abbreviation for Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen GmbH (). ''Hollerith'' refers to the ...
. Topics in this regard include: *documenting operations by Dehomag which allowed the Nazis to better organize their war effort, in particular the
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
and use of
Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately af ...
; *comparing these efforts to operations by other IBM subsidiaries which aided other nations' war efforts; *and ultimately, assessing the degree to which IBM should be held culpable for atrocities which were made possible by its actions. *the selection methods they developed and used had the purpose of selecting and killing civilians.


United States

In the United States, IBM was, at the request of the government, the subcontractor of the punched card project for the
internment camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simp ...
of
Japanese Americans are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...
: IBM equipment was used for cryptography by US Army and Navy organisations,
Arlington Hall Arlington Hall (also called Arlington Hall Station) is a historic building in Arlington, Virginia. Originally it was a girls' school and later the headquarters of the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) cryptography operations ...
and
OP-20-G OP-20-G or "Office of Chief Of Naval Operations (OPNAV), 20th Division of the Office of Naval Communications, G Section / Communications Security", was the U.S. Navy's signals intelligence and cryptanalysis group during World War II. Its mission ...
and similar Allied organisations using Hollerith punched cards (
Central Bureau The Central Bureau was one of two Allied signals intelligence (SIGINT) organisations in the South West Pacific area (SWPA) during World War II. Central Bureau was attached to the headquarters of the Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area, Ge ...
and the
Far East Combined Bureau The Far East Combined Bureau, an outstation of the British Government Code and Cypher School, was set up in Hong Kong in March 1935, to monitor Japanese, and also Chinese and Russian (Soviet) intelligence and radio traffic. Later it moved to Sing ...
). The company developed and built the
Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator The Harvard Mark I, or IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), was one of the earliest general-purpose electromechanical computers used in the war effort during the last part of World War II. One of the first programs to run on th ...
which was used to perform computations for the
Manhattan project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...
.


Criticism of IBM's actions during World War II

A 2001 book by
Edwin Black Edwin Black (born February 27, 1950) is an American historian and author, as well as a print syndication, syndicated columnist, investigative journalist, and weekly talk show host on The Edwin Black Show. He specializes in human rights, the hist ...
, entitled ''
IBM and the Holocaust ''IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation'' is a book by investigative journalist and historian Edwin Black which documents the strategic technology services rendered by US-based ...
'', reached the conclusion that IBM's commercial activities in Germany during World War II make it morally complicit in the
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
. An updated 2002 paperback edition of the book included new evidence of the connection between IBM's
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headquarters, which controlled a
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
subsidiary, and the Nazis.
Oliver Burkeman Oliver Burkeman (born 1975) is a British author and journalist, formerly writing the weekly column ''This Column Will Change Your Life'' for the newspaper ''The Guardian''. In 2021, he published '' Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Morta ...
wrote for ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', "The paperback provides the first evidence that the company's dealings with the Nazis were controlled from its New York headquarters throughout the second world war." In February 2001, an
Alien Tort Claims Act The Alien Tort Statute ( codified in 1948 as ; ATS), also called the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), is a section in the United States Code that gives federal courts jurisdiction over lawsuits filed by foreign nationals for torts committed in vio ...
claim was filed in U.S. federal court on behalf of concentration camp survivors against IBM. The suit accused IBM of allegedly providing the punched card technology that facilitated the Holocaust, and for covering up German IBM subsidiary Dehomag's activities. In April 2001, the lawsuit was dropped after lawyers feared the suit would slow down payments from a German Holocaust fund for Holocaust survivors who had suffered under Nazi persecution. IBM's German division had paid $3 million into the fund, while making it clear they were not admitting liability. In 2004, the human rights organization Gypsy International Recognition and Compensation Action (GIRCA) filed suit against IBM in Switzerland. The case was dismissed in 2006, as the
statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In ...
had expired.


Responses to critics

In an "IBM Statement on Nazi-era Book and Lawsuit", IBM responded in February 2001 that: Richard Bernstein, writing for ''
The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
'' in 2001, pointed out that "many American companies did what I.B.M. did. ... What then makes I.B.M. different?" He states that Black's case in his book ''
IBM and the Holocaust ''IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation'' is a book by investigative journalist and historian Edwin Black which documents the strategic technology services rendered by US-based ...
'' "is long and heavily documented, and yet he does not demonstrate that bears some unique or decisive responsibility for the evil that was done." IBM quoted this claim in a March 2002 "Addendum to IBM Statement on Nazi-era Book and Lawsuit," after the publication of Black's revised paperback edition:


See also

*
IBM and the Holocaust ''IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation'' is a book by investigative journalist and historian Edwin Black which documents the strategic technology services rendered by US-based ...
*
German re-armament German rearmament (''Aufrüstung'', ) was a policy and practice of rearmament carried out by Germany from 1918 to 1939 in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, which required German disarmament after World War I to prevent it from starting an ...
*
List of International subsidiaries of IBM IBM has had business internationally since before the company had a name. Early leaders of the companies that would eventually become IBM (Mr Hollerith, Mr Flint, and Mr Watson) all were involved in doing international business. In those early da ...
* * * Never Again pledge


References

{{IBM
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
Intelligence of World War II Science and technology during World War II Companies involved in the Holocaust